Remember one the first joints that Teddy Riley and Guy came out with, “Groove Me?”
If you’re not familiar with the group, they were one of the first revolutionary Hip-Hop/R&B sets in the 80s. They made banging up tempo songs for the streets and memorable slow ballads for lovers. If you don’t know legendary super producer Teddy Riley , then you have either been under a musical rock or you are still going through puberty (understandable).
He was Timbaland, before Timbo started busting off hits for every pop artist with a Grammy and multi-million dollar budget.
One of the most memorable parts of the song is near the end. The music just stops and Riley says, “Hold up. It ain’t over. It’s not over. The party’s not over,” and the club full of sexy chicks in tight biker suits and fly guys rocking baggy shirts with gold chains, kept dancing, shaking and swinging.
That late 1988 Classic released on Geffen Records, is the perfect theme for both MLB League Championship Series. The St. Louis Cardinals jumped out to a 3-1 lead over LA, and the Midwest was preparing for another Cardinals King’s WS coronation. It wasn’t so much the Cardinals’ punching power that had the Dodgers reeling on the ropes. The St. Louis pitching staff was virtually flawless and disrupted any offensive flow LA tried to muster.
The Dodgers, sick with hole-in-bat disease, weren’t the same up-tempo, demonstrative crew they had been on the journey to this NLCS. St. Louis seemed to put a pin in LA’s bravado balloon. You’d figure the Cardinals would do the Dodgers a favor in Game 5 by running up in the hospital and take them off life support.
Instead, the Dodgers summoned their inner Teddy Riley and refused to exit the NLCS party without kicking some ass, taking some names and bagging some numbers.
After five games and 152 at bats without a homerun, the Dodgers hit a franchise NLCS-record four on Wednesday to stave off elimination, defeat St. Louis 6-4 and send the series back to “The Lou” down 3-2 in the best-of-seven series—with revived hope of making that WS after –party.
Adrian Gonzales smashed two of them and Carl Crawford regained his NLDS power stroke and banged a long blast that had the Dodgers fans wilding.
“Guys weren't ready to lose today,'' Crawford said on Fox after the game.
After the first blast, Gonzales was back on his Dodger-Blue BS. The same arrogance and provocative flow that helped them, turn it up and run away with the NL West. As he two-stepped towards the dugout, Gonzalez cupped his hands to his ears and wiggled them in a gesture resembling mouse ears. It was get back for Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright, who said Gonzalez had done ''some Mickey Mouse stuff'' in celebrating a double on Monday night.
Then after his second blast, Gonzalez got into it a bit with Yasiel Puig who was on double deck. Puig took Gonzalez’ “lucky” bat out of the rack like he was going to use it. Gonzalez went bonkers, came running over and said something, obviously chastising Puig for touching the bat. Puig obligingly out the lumber back, but he looked vexed like a kid who just got scolded for trying to cut steak with a butter knife.
It was zany, but the kind of veteran-rookie exchange that’s necessary when a team is on the championship come-up. Everybody has to be on the same page and it’s not a bad thing that Puig has an elder statesman to help temper his exuberance. Also, someone to teach Puig proper baseball etiquette to go along with his incomparable raw skills.
St. Louis went from being in the driver’s seat, to having all of the pressure. They are in the uncomfortable position of trying to avoid dubious history while chasing greatness. No team in the MLB, NBA or NHL history has blown a 3-1 series lead in consecutive years.
Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina was on Fox assuring commentators that last year’s results don’t have anything to do with this season. They better hope so because the Dodgers are on the move with probable NL Cy Young-soldier Clayton Kershaw on the Hill against a rookie pitching sensation (Michael Wacha “Flames”) who is due for a stinker. No time for St. Louis to be lame wallflowers. We all respect Walt Clyde Frazier-like smooth personas, but it’s time for Cards skipper Mike Matheny to bring out the DMX-dawg in his birds.
